Dreweatts & Bloomsbury – Mixed Media: 20th Century Art

An interesting auction entitled Mixed Media: 20th Century Art took place at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury in London, on Thursday, July 16 2015. As a title of auction suggests, a wide range of media were put on sale – prints, photographs, pictures. Unfortunately, the auction results could have been better. Only 51 percent of lots offered were sold, while auction gathered only $365.818. The works by Australian artist Donald Friend achieved extraordinary results.

Donald Friend – The Star of the Auction

Donald Friend was an Australian artist, writer and diarist. He is well-known for his studies of the young male nude. However, he also used many other motifs in his work. Friend’s Captain De Groot opening the Sydney Habour Bridge achieved excellent results at Mixed Media: 20th Century Art auction. It was sold for $21.854, which is +2232.3 percent difference between hammer price and high estimate.

Mixed Media: 20th Century Art auction saw 51 percent of lots offered being sold. Exactly 15.4 percent of sold lots (more precisely 38) changed their owners for the hammer price larger than the high estimate, as opposed to 130 lots, or 52.6 percent, being sold for the price smaller than the low estimate; 79 lots (31 percent of lots) were sold in range of estimated value. The highest hammer price was seen in the sale of Lucian Freud’s Self Portrait, 1979 that was sold for $23.415 and in the sale of previously mentioned Friend’s Captain De Groot opening the Sydney Habour Bridge. Average hammer price at this auction was $1.481, while the hammer price median was $656. The difference between average hammer price and median was -55.7 percent.

Speaking about the most successful lots, lots that have exceeded expectations, the winner is Donald Friend’s Captain De Groot opening the Sydney Habour Bridge that was sold with +223.2 percent difference between hammer price and high estimate. We should also mention Marc Chagall’s Mounting the Ebony Horse, Pl. 12 (M. 47) and Michel Fingesten’s To Be or Not to Be that were sold with +288.8 percent and +266.9 percent difference between hammer price and high estimate. On the bottom side are Tess Jaray’s Green Arrows on White with -90.1 percent difference between hammer price and low estimate, followed by Zvi Mairovich’s Woman with Flowers (with -89.7 percent) and Colin Self’s Landscape in Rain, 1971 (with -66.7 percent).

Please, scroll down, and you will find two tables – one with the summary of the Dreweatts & Bloomsbury – Mixed Media: 20th Century Art; the second one with detailed information on every lot auctioned at this auction.